<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><rss xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:openSearch="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/" xmlns:blogger="http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008" xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss" xmlns:gd="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005" xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0" version="2.0"><channel><atom:id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788038502283845513</atom:id><lastBuildDate>Sun, 24 Nov 2024 19:17:10 +0000</lastBuildDate><category>GLVAR</category><category>Nevada</category><category>real estate market</category><category>Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors</category><category>Henderson</category><category>Mountain&#39;s Edge</category><category>Pahrump</category><category>Southern Highlands</category><category>Summerlin</category><category>housing market</category><category>mortgage</category><category>residential 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Fountains</category><category>townhome</category><category>townhouse</category><category>unit</category><title>Las Vegas Real Estate News</title><description>Mortgage consultant and real estate aficionado Esko Kiuru blogs about the Southern Nevada housing market. Straight shooter, unbiased.</description><link>http://vegashousing.blogspot.com/</link><managingEditor>noreply@blogger.com (Esko)</managingEditor><generator>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>287</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788038502283845513.post-2340659233146891496</guid><pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2010 01:26:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-07-31T18:29:23.871-07:00</atom:updated><title>June home sales in Southern Nevada up - median price down</title><description>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwYaBVk9t_pYZwRinjzYPmjHac_EP7xGSSfkekMerdrXf1WkvxL1GhRzAcL0l6i2S3Zfq6xhw6pls4e2QTo8wQR1ZE_wAoLaFl7WfSpZi7MnUrwc6O9XMj4tAxeKJZ8j5fw7AE4CT0AjD-/s1600/Caesars+Palace,+Las+Vegas+NV.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; bx=&quot;true&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwYaBVk9t_pYZwRinjzYPmjHac_EP7xGSSfkekMerdrXf1WkvxL1GhRzAcL0l6i2S3Zfq6xhw6pls4e2QTo8wQR1ZE_wAoLaFl7WfSpZi7MnUrwc6O9XMj4tAxeKJZ8j5fw7AE4CT0AjD-/s320/Caesars+Palace,+Las+Vegas+NV.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Las Vegas homeowners and real estate observers have been looking for clear direction the local housing market could be happy about but it&#39;s refusing to cooperate.&lt;/strong&gt; It seems to have settled on a typically erratic path that markets display when they reach the bottom on a downward cycle - or are very near it - and just can&#39;t decide how to shake the gloominess off and embark on a climb out for better days. Last month&#39;s real estate statistics reflect that rather well.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;strong&gt;GLVAR, or Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, recounts for its rapt audience that 3,360 resale homes were closed in June, a nice 16.5% uptick from May.&lt;/strong&gt; That reverses two consecutive months of modest declines. However, it&#39;s about an 11% drop from June of 2009, a cause for some concern.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://activerain.com/blogsview/1744493/southern-nevada-june-home-sales-up-median-price-lower&quot;&gt;Las Vegas homeowners&lt;/a&gt; are carefully monitoring price movement that has been so negatively aggressive in the valley, dragging scores of them underwater, an occasion where property value dips below the underlying mortgage balance.&lt;/strong&gt; The median price in June parked at $140,000, a $2,000 retreat from May, and the same as it was in May of 2009. For now it appears that prices have stabilized, giving the disappointed Sin City homeowners some hope of sunnier days ahead.&lt;br /&gt;
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Please click on the above link to access the entire blog.</description><link>http://vegashousing.blogspot.com/2010/07/june-home-sales-in-southern-nevada-up.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Esko)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwYaBVk9t_pYZwRinjzYPmjHac_EP7xGSSfkekMerdrXf1WkvxL1GhRzAcL0l6i2S3Zfq6xhw6pls4e2QTo8wQR1ZE_wAoLaFl7WfSpZi7MnUrwc6O9XMj4tAxeKJZ8j5fw7AE4CT0AjD-/s72-c/Caesars+Palace,+Las+Vegas+NV.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>4</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788038502283845513.post-2189488738250912397</guid><pubDate>Sun, 01 Aug 2010 01:20:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-07-31T18:21:11.107-07:00</atom:updated><title>Foreclosure filings drop - short sales incrrease - mortgage distress lumbers on</title><description>&lt;strong&gt;Real estate market observers have mixed feelings about RealtyTrac&#39;s Midyear 2010 Foreclosure Report.&lt;/strong&gt; It says that 1,654,634 homeowners were sent at least one mortgage foreclosure filing from January through June. That translates to over 3,000,000 by the end of the year and RealtyTrac forecasts that over 1 million of them will eventually become repossessions, or REOs - real estate owned. The number by itself is of course alarming, but the current six month number actually is a drop of 5% from the second half of last year. Ordinarily in any housing enterprise that would be something to feel upbeat about.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;strong&gt;On closer look the mortgage picture isn&#39;t all sweet grapes and chocolate treats after all.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;Home loan&amp;nbsp;lenders and servicers have lately changed course to give a short sale a chance to work before filing foreclosure notices. The government has aggressively promoted its &lt;a href=&quot;http://activerain.com/blogsview/1752757/foreclosure-filings-decline-short-sales-climb-mortgage-distress-hangs-around&quot;&gt;mortgage loan modification&lt;/a&gt; programs that have had a preventive impact despite the private sector&#39;s reluctance to get fully engaged. Yet, these initiatives have been a disappointment when measured by their originally announced goals. Moreover, mortgage lenders often are disorganized and undermanned to handle the torrent of foreclosures and their workforces seem to lack the necessary training to be effective, therefore foreclosure action can be delayed for months.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;strong&gt;These factors have shifted the emphasis away from mortgage foreclosure statistics and are obviously responsible for the 5% decrease.&lt;/strong&gt; In the meantime distressed properties continue to saturate unabated the landscape from Las Vegas to the shores of Florida. A great many are underwater and are hard-pressed to find any meaningful relief in the near future. The job situation is slowly improving at least in some regions but still isn&#39;t strong enough to decisively begin lifting struggling homeowners to their feet.&lt;br /&gt;
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Please click on the above link to read the entire blog.</description><link>http://vegashousing.blogspot.com/2010/07/foreclosure-filings-drop-short-sales.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Esko)</author><thr:total>2</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788038502283845513.post-9045460716187236883</guid><pubDate>Sat, 31 Jul 2010 02:31:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-07-31T18:32:22.596-07:00</atom:updated><title>Washington&#39;s control of real estate market disturbing</title><description>&lt;div style=&quot;border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqgHfZK8SjEJ09Y2vDL3UJKVZqsgeUoeY5_TLxZ1ks9t4apENxwFlNGX1iuUsRMD2MNsYj89UOm1ZMDCi3wM6swzALiCBPgVpEWJfEI6fV2CPrXcaLgBb9nZn1bg9-UPoox24zGSuDBSYD/s1600/Angel+Park+Golf+Club,+Las+Vegas,+NV.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; bx=&quot;true&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqgHfZK8SjEJ09Y2vDL3UJKVZqsgeUoeY5_TLxZ1ks9t4apENxwFlNGX1iuUsRMD2MNsYj89UOm1ZMDCi3wM6swzALiCBPgVpEWJfEI6fV2CPrXcaLgBb9nZn1bg9-UPoox24zGSuDBSYD/s320/Angel+Park+Golf+Club,+Las+Vegas,+NV.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The housing industry is relying heavily on government-backed mortgage organizations like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA for supplying financing to home buyers, filling a gaping void left by the private home loan sector still applying remedial salve to its festering wounds.&lt;/strong&gt; Without them the real estate arena would be uniquely anemic. And the government is slowly gaining even more control over housing in a different but quite influential capacity, whether it likes it or not.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;As mortgage foreclosures keep steadily spilling onto the ravaged real estate market, GSEs - Fannie Mae&#39;s and Freddie Mac&#39;s official designation - and its federal cousins like FHA and VA pick up repossessed homes by the thousands.&lt;/strong&gt; Radar Logic - a real estate research boutique - reports that the government now holds about 46% of all U.S. REO inventory, a large share that has been continually growing over the past several years.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;&quot;&gt;What&#39;s alarming is that it&#39;s going to increase from there for the foreseeable future. 2.3 million homeowners are currently 30-90 days behind on their &lt;a href=&quot;http://activerain.com/blogsview/1720793/washington-controls-46-of-reos-today-real-estate-market-maker-for-years-to-come&quot;&gt;mortgages&lt;/a&gt;, as Zillow and Lender Processing Services have figured out. Radar Logic calculates that 69% of these home loans are guaranteed or owned by the various government agencies. The situation is worse than that, though. About 5 million mortgage borrowers are either 90 days past due or are already in the foreclosure pipeline. The Treasury reports that 56% of these are in some shape or form under the government&#39;s umbrella. Radar Logic estimates that roughly 35% of mortgages in these two categories will avoid foreclosure via modification efforts or short sales.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;Please click on the link to read the entire blog.&lt;br /&gt;
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Angle Park Golf Glub in the picture.</description><link>http://vegashousing.blogspot.com/2010/07/washingtons-control-of-real-estate.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Esko)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqgHfZK8SjEJ09Y2vDL3UJKVZqsgeUoeY5_TLxZ1ks9t4apENxwFlNGX1iuUsRMD2MNsYj89UOm1ZMDCi3wM6swzALiCBPgVpEWJfEI6fV2CPrXcaLgBb9nZn1bg9-UPoox24zGSuDBSYD/s72-c/Angel+Park+Golf+Club,+Las+Vegas,+NV.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>1</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788038502283845513.post-1025133213075516286</guid><pubDate>Sat, 31 Jul 2010 02:14:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-07-31T16:44:00.444-07:00</atom:updated><title>Appraisal changes made by mortgage lenders get closer scrutiny from Fannie Mae</title><description>The real estate market meltdown has exposed many painful and game-changing weaknesses in how business was conducted in the years past. In the quest to make as much money as possible scores of mortgage files were pushed through with incomplete or doctored information. Now, with foreclosures the topic of the day, mortgage lenders are receiving growing demands from investors like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy back loans they originated haphazardly. That can be devastating to the bottom line. &lt;br /&gt;
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To deal with the costly buyback menace many &lt;a href=&quot;http://activerain.com/blogsview/1738525/fannie-mae-gets-tough-on-appraisal-changes-made-by-mortgage-lenders&quot;&gt;mortgage&lt;/a&gt; shops have commenced tinkering with appraisals, of all things. As an appraisal comes in some home loan providers will run an electronic valuation model based on public records - it involves no actual physical inspection - to see how close the two numbers are. They are double checking on the appraiser&#39;s work, is what they are doing. If the appraiser&#39;s report is higher the underwriter can randomly cut back on the value, so that the lender can&#39;t be blamed for using inflated figures should the loan go bad. Of course, many a deal has blown up into many little pieces as a result. This likely happens more in the hard-hit areas - Las Vegas comes to mind, as does Arizona, California and Florida - where values have eroded the most and where all the mortgage foreclosures and short sales can seriously trample with the price structure.&lt;br /&gt;
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Please click on the link&amp;nbsp;to read the entire article.</description><link>http://vegashousing.blogspot.com/2010/07/appraisal-changes-from-fannie-mae-get.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Esko)</author><thr:total>2</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788038502283845513.post-4881156456746761624</guid><pubDate>Thu, 01 Jul 2010 00:04:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-06-30T17:05:24.155-07:00</atom:updated><title>Southern Nevada single-family house prices fairly stable - May sales slide</title><description>&lt;strong&gt;Las Vegas real estate statistics continue on an unsteady path, as they’ve been for the past several months.&lt;/strong&gt; One sector could show a bit of sunshine peeking through while anther struggles with a curve heading in the wrong direction. But anyhow, let’s go right to the cold, hard numbers.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;strong&gt;The median price for a single-family house came in at $142,000 for May which equals the figure for the previous month, so reported GLVAR, or Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.&lt;/strong&gt; When placed side by side with May of 2009 it’s up 1.4%, a tentative improvement but nothing much to trade hugs and kisses over. Nevertheless, the&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://activerain.com/blogsview/1689027/las-vegas-single-family-house-prices-hang-in-there-sales-slide-in-may&quot;&gt;real estate&lt;/a&gt; values are holding on at least for now while talk about the ominous housing double-dip on a national scale is gathering momentum.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;strong&gt;In addition, GLVAR bravely informs that 2,884 single-family houses were closed in May, signaling a 2.3% drop from April and a second consecutive monthly deficit this year.&lt;/strong&gt; It certainly is a concern. And more so when the decline of 11.4% from May of 2009 is reluctantly hustled into focus. Those who have been quietly praying for an impending real estate turnaround in Vegas should scale back their anticipation. It isn’t over until the fat lady sings.&lt;br /&gt;
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Please click on the above link to read the entire blog.</description><link>http://vegashousing.blogspot.com/2010/06/southern-nevada-single-family-house.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Esko)</author><thr:total>1</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788038502283845513.post-3692482443725078857</guid><pubDate>Wed, 30 Jun 2010 23:57:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-06-30T16:58:54.847-07:00</atom:updated><title>Las Vegas effective homeownership rate perilously low, per Fed study</title><description>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzWvFIkcWHJguwEUvDPuMyY4cOlA5nOOS8rLB5lFze9dVzG3dBkqcPOtpBelPtKgfLallQJx4gjyBZzHSwimUMeSZ1kShdzGWSLBYsrQqKegokrcgA2afdfD2ifSnSXwhd9GBxiAkvjt-v/s1600/Bellagio+%26+Caesars+Palace+Las+Vegas+NV.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; ru=&quot;true&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzWvFIkcWHJguwEUvDPuMyY4cOlA5nOOS8rLB5lFze9dVzG3dBkqcPOtpBelPtKgfLallQJx4gjyBZzHSwimUMeSZ1kShdzGWSLBYsrQqKegokrcgA2afdfD2ifSnSXwhd9GBxiAkvjt-v/s320/Bellagio+%26+Caesars+Palace+Las+Vegas+NV.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Southern Nevada homeowners were dealt a hand in the real estate and mortgage tragedy for the ages that had very little chance of keeping them in the game for long.&lt;/strong&gt; Severe price erosion has yanked tens of thousands way underwater – a suddenly everyday term in Sin City where the mortgage balance is higher than property value – that has pushed them to reconsider the merits of continuing to honor the original home loan agreement. Making payments on a, say, $400,000 mortgage when the house is only worth $200,000 is bothering increasingly many as something they probably should not be doing. Renting is becoming a viable option. &lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;strong&gt;The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has taken the underwater factor into account in its recent study on homeownership in the U.S.&lt;/strong&gt; The Census Bureau supplies quarterly the official numbers on it, for instance reporting that the all-time high of 69% was reached in 2006. At the end of 2009 it leveled off at 67.2%, clearly pulled lower by the adverse effects of the housing meltdown. But with the underwater dynamic included, the Fed estimates the national “effective” homeownership rate should be 5.6% less over the next several years. It means then that the number ought to be around 61.6%. In itself, nationally, it’s not that drastic.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;strong&gt;But the issue is about to spawn a cardiac arrest-like impact when Las Vegas figures are flashed up on the wide screen, at least among those residing in the desert entertainment oasis.&lt;/strong&gt; In August of 2009 the Census Bureau’s official homeownership rate in &lt;a href=&quot;http://activerain.com/blogsview/1685571/effective-homeownership-rate-in-las-vegas-perilously-low-according-to-fed-study&quot;&gt;Southern Nevada&lt;/a&gt; showed 58.6%, the peak being 65% a few years ago. And here comes the numbing shocker; per the Fed’s calculations the “effective” rate here now is a mere 14.7%. Ouch. Due to the underwater metric the gap widened by over 40%. Case-Shiller home price index was employed to come up with an estimate for the count of underwater mortgage borrowers in Vegas.&lt;br /&gt;
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Please click on the above link to gain access to the entire blog.</description><link>http://vegashousing.blogspot.com/2010/06/southern-nevada-homeowners-were-dealt.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Esko)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzWvFIkcWHJguwEUvDPuMyY4cOlA5nOOS8rLB5lFze9dVzG3dBkqcPOtpBelPtKgfLallQJx4gjyBZzHSwimUMeSZ1kShdzGWSLBYsrQqKegokrcgA2afdfD2ifSnSXwhd9GBxiAkvjt-v/s72-c/Bellagio+%26+Caesars+Palace+Las+Vegas+NV.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>1</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788038502283845513.post-5325197050195754382</guid><pubDate>Wed, 30 Jun 2010 23:52:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-06-30T16:52:10.454-07:00</atom:updated><title>Mortgage foreclosure protection bill moves ahead in California - Nevada eyes it with some interest</title><description>&lt;strong&gt;Homeowners in distress have encountered a myriad of challenges when trying to save their properties from foreclosure.&lt;/strong&gt; Many have successfully navigated around all the different shoals and rocks strewn along the way. Others, far too many actually, have not. Mortgage lenders and servicers often lack the staff to handle the volume the housing meltdown has thrown at them, industry training of staff is suspect, their systems are in many cases inadequate and it’s also evident that their commitment has been at best lukewarm. The frustration level among struggling &lt;a href=&quot;http://activerain.com/blogsview/1681794/mortgage-foreclosure-protection-bill-advances-in-california-nevada-keeps-an-eye-on-it&quot;&gt;mortgage borrowers&lt;/a&gt; is understandably high. &lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;strong&gt;California just introduced a fresh mortgage foreclosure protection bill addressing some glaring shortcomings in the state’s current rule book.&lt;/strong&gt; One provision gives homeowners recourse if they were foreclosed on due to a home loan servicer’s error. They could collect limited damages based on the seriousness of the mistake and in some situations even repeal the foreclosure sale altogether.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;strong&gt;The other noteworthy provision prevents mortgage lenders from beginning a foreclose process until the borrower has received a decision on a loan modification application and been properly notified of it.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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Please click on the above link to access the entire blog.</description><link>http://vegashousing.blogspot.com/2010/06/mortgage-foreclosure-protection-bill.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Esko)</author><thr:total>1</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788038502283845513.post-3753146604044164345</guid><pubDate>Wed, 30 Jun 2010 23:45:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-06-30T16:45:41.495-07:00</atom:updated><title>The Fed could make a bundle on mortgage-backed securities</title><description>&lt;strong&gt;When the housing market began recently unraveling at warp speed and quickly lugged the overextended mortgage industry along with it things looked quite bleak for the U.S. economy.&lt;/strong&gt; Housing, after all, is one of its major components and should it be hit with a serious medical condition, taking a simple pain killer wouldn&#39;t help much. Then if ever, when the fury of the real estate sector&#39;s downturn became better understood, drastic action was called for.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;The Federal Reserve bravely stepped forward intent on showing how it&#39;s done.&lt;/strong&gt; Right on the heels of the private investor vanishing from the &lt;a href=&quot;http://activerain.com/blogsview/1666534/the-fed-could-make-billions-on-mbs-mortgage-backed-securities&quot;&gt;secondary mortgage market&lt;/a&gt; the Fed knew that to avoid an utter disaster with global consequences it had to quickly fill the vacuum. It began buying MBS, or mortgage-backed securities, insuring that home loan interest rates wouldn&#39;t shoot through the roof. That was essential to keep the housing market on its wobbly feet, giving it something concrete to rely on. There was some early howling against this vast government interference but it soon abated as stark reality set in. Without the Fed&#39;s decisive action Stone Age would have been right around the corner.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please click on the above link to read the entire blog.</description><link>http://vegashousing.blogspot.com/2010/06/fed-could-make-bundle-on-mortgage.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Esko)</author><thr:total>1</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788038502283845513.post-3389535804782217446</guid><pubDate>Tue, 01 Jun 2010 02:32:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-05-31T19:32:34.102-07:00</atom:updated><title>Housing gloom could be with us a while longer - Mortgage applications drop</title><description>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDxrvRd1ovkFE8FrItq15fb2d2ofNl5HpKzOmKrnn__SMGTkDiWbt6JVynMT6uMb03nIsg3gNhsw6zpnMy0ZTcnLSeRLh2zGvdVyPOgx0bsGZZrydlGX5-UH1fUlRmVjx8t9C-LQoUzZbT/s1600/Vdara+condos2,+Las+Vegas,+NV.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; gu=&quot;true&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDxrvRd1ovkFE8FrItq15fb2d2ofNl5HpKzOmKrnn__SMGTkDiWbt6JVynMT6uMb03nIsg3gNhsw6zpnMy0ZTcnLSeRLh2zGvdVyPOgx0bsGZZrydlGX5-UH1fUlRmVjx8t9C-LQoUzZbT/s320/Vdara+condos2,+Las+Vegas,+NV.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;When the government introduced the first-time home buyer tax credit program - later it included move-up buyers as well - many real estate and mortgage movers and shakers blessed it with applause.&lt;/strong&gt; Others weren&#39;t so sure it would work that well. The Housing research firms are predictably right now working on overdrive to put their data together and announce soon what they found out as to the initiative&#39;s effectiveness. One thing is for sure, though; it did add a respectable dose of demand to the otherwise lethargic real estate arena. It concentrated largely on the lower half of the market, Las Vegas being a good example of that, but in this uncertain environment any demand is peachy. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Mortgage Bankers Association provides an early indicator on this intriguing issue.&lt;/strong&gt; In the first week after the tax break closed out &lt;a href=&quot;http://activerain.com/blogsview/1655406/housing-gloom-could-last-another-while-mortgage-purchase-applications-sink&quot;&gt;mortgage applications&lt;/a&gt; dropped 14% and to make matters worse, in the second week they nosedived 27%. Reuters came out to call these declines the worst since 1997.&lt;br /&gt;
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The significance here is that this is happening in the middle of the traditional spring buying season. Sellers and buyers of course are not looking at a standard real estate market where to conduct business. These figures, though, seem to show that obviously the tax credit did play a big role in generating sales the way it did over the past year or so. Mortgage money also remains surprisingly affordable, supposedly drawing applicants in droves to go for it. But the numbers from the last two weeks prove otherwise. Home loan underwriting guidelines are stricter now which does leave some borrowers out of the hunt.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please click on the link to access the entire blog.</description><link>http://vegashousing.blogspot.com/2010/05/housing-gloom-could-be-with-us-while.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Esko)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDxrvRd1ovkFE8FrItq15fb2d2ofNl5HpKzOmKrnn__SMGTkDiWbt6JVynMT6uMb03nIsg3gNhsw6zpnMy0ZTcnLSeRLh2zGvdVyPOgx0bsGZZrydlGX5-UH1fUlRmVjx8t9C-LQoUzZbT/s72-c/Vdara+condos2,+Las+Vegas,+NV.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>2</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788038502283845513.post-8263030284686485255</guid><pubDate>Tue, 01 Jun 2010 02:25:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-05-31T19:25:37.583-07:00</atom:updated><title>Las Vegas standard home sales draw top dollar - short sales and REOs lag</title><description>&lt;strong&gt;The current real estate chaos has introduced even the timid to the exotic avenues of unloading a home.&lt;/strong&gt; Before, the industry experts were usually the only ones well-versed on REOs and foreclosure and short sales and even auctions. This generation of mortgage borrowers and homeowners has been, whether they liked it or not, put through a crash course on various &quot;creative&quot; methods of selling a property. Some have been personally involved in the paperwork-laden processes when delinquency was knocking on the door, while others have followed from the sidelines through media the often hair-raising developments. It has been for everyone a unique learning experience hard to forget anytime soon.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Southern Nevada - home to Summerlin, Mountains Edge, Spanish Trail, Henderson, North Las Vegas and Silverstone Ranch - is undeniably at the epicenter of the unusual sales method.&lt;/strong&gt; What&#39;s intriguing about it all is how prices differ among them, as was reported by SalesTraq, a real estate information boutique.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;In April SalesTraq counted 4,323 existing home closings in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://activerain.com/blogsview/1651685/las-vegas-regular-home-sales-bring-top-dollar-reos-and-short-sales-lag&quot;&gt;Las Vegas housing market&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt; Regular owner-initiated sales drew a median price of $135,000 on a volume of 1,383 units. REOs, or real estate owned by banks, brought $125,000 per home with 1,636 sales. Short sales, on the other hand, garnered the lowest median price at $122,000, with 969 closings. Based on these figures REOs, or mortgage lender foreclosures, and short sales in Southern Nevada lag about 8-10% behind the standard, untainted home sale.&lt;br /&gt;
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Please click on the link to read the entire article.</description><link>http://vegashousing.blogspot.com/2010/05/las-vegas-standard-home-sales-draw-top.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Esko)</author><thr:total>2</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788038502283845513.post-2704865342397661092</guid><pubDate>Wed, 26 May 2010 23:48:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-05-26T16:48:44.030-07:00</atom:updated><title>Home loan applicant treats - Las Vegas mortgage borrowers beware</title><description>&lt;strong&gt;When a consumer fills out a mortgage application to purchase a home, or do a refinance, it means that obtaining his credit report will follow.&lt;/strong&gt; It&#39;s part of the process and readily accepted. Something else may also happen, though, that can cause bewilderment in the home loan applicant, maybe even anger of various decibels.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;This action actually permits credit bureaus - Equifax, Experian, Innovis and TransUnion - to peddle the mortgage borrower&#39;s information to third party vendors, among which can be other home loan providers.&lt;/strong&gt; The phone at the consumer&#39;s pad can start ringing with unwanted solicitations that probably were not penciled in on his calendar. If so, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://activerain.com/blogsview/1645269/mortgage-borrower-tidbits-las-vegas-home-loan-applicants-beware&quot;&gt;mortgage broker&lt;/a&gt; who took the original application likely will receive heated questions about it, giving his otherwise ordinary day a new twist. Sometimes a brief, to-the-point explanation will suffice, sometimes the matter will spiral in a new, unwanted direction from which recovery can take time.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please click on the link to access the full blog.</description><link>http://vegashousing.blogspot.com/2010/05/home-loan-applicant-treats-las-vegas.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Esko)</author><thr:total>1</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788038502283845513.post-3461958457774473707</guid><pubDate>Wed, 26 May 2010 23:42:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-05-26T16:43:11.048-07:00</atom:updated><title>Las Vegas resale stats all over the map for April</title><description>&lt;strong&gt;If the median price of a single-family house is used as a sole indicator for the health of a real estate market, then Sin City would be hailed as being on the mend.&lt;/strong&gt; According to GLVAR, or Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, Southern Nevada&#39;s median price grew to $142,000 in April, a strong 4.4% improvement from March. Not only that, it also is 0.2% higher from the same month last year, for the first time the year-over-year number is positive since 2007. Single-family house prices peaked in Las Vegas in February of 2007 at $310,000. The slide without a doubt has been blood-thinning.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;That, however, is only part of the monthly housing picture here in Southern Nevada.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Single-family house sales tallied up 2,951 units in April, a surprising decline of 224 closings from March. Adding to the weakness in this category is the fact that it&#39;s also a 7.7% setback from last year. March showed solid strength and it was widely believed in &lt;a href=&quot;http://activerain.com/blogsview/1640145/southern-nevada-resale-statistics-all-over-the-map-in-april&quot;&gt;Las Vegas real estate&lt;/a&gt; circles April would follow along those lines, supported by inexpensive mortgage money. But that didn&#39;t happen. Puzzlement is painted across faces of everyone who has a stake in the local housing market.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please click on the link to read the entire article.</description><link>http://vegashousing.blogspot.com/2010/05/las-vegas-resale-stats-all-over-map-for.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Esko)</author><thr:total>1</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788038502283845513.post-3398859347635705240</guid><pubDate>Fri, 14 May 2010 00:02:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-05-13T17:03:31.580-07:00</atom:updated><title>Mortgage fraud on the rise despite new HVCC rules - Nevada way down sin list</title><description>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1WsA2F_HbkB8QxuEWvlzDo26RD47OxGLAhf1ehxN4kmoGpUAs8yGXUwLSWz4dRXFH1zfE1VYfx-J_L-u9bQuEo7oq9_xxSWSzrX8YpHpciJfJvPbhpp43Um4GLO88RKyFn6ueKE9-MupH/s1600/Lake+Las+Vegas+estate.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1WsA2F_HbkB8QxuEWvlzDo26RD47OxGLAhf1ehxN4kmoGpUAs8yGXUwLSWz4dRXFH1zfE1VYfx-J_L-u9bQuEo7oq9_xxSWSzrX8YpHpciJfJvPbhpp43Um4GLO88RKyFn6ueKE9-MupH/s320/Lake+Las+Vegas+estate.jpg&quot; wt=&quot;true&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When the real estate chaos engulfed the nation one of the alleged causes to it was how mortgage brokers were pushing appraisers around to &quot;hit the number.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt; Home loan professionals were smooth-talking them - in some cases supposedly being even rather loud about it - to value a property at what their contract said it should be. In those go-go years it commonly meant many appraisals came in high. This practice, in some shape or form fraud, had to be put under a large microscope the big mortgage banks were telling everybody who would listen and eventually were able to convince the government it all really was true and should be remedied yesterday. The rumor has it Wall Street does have some pull in Washington.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;As a result the HVCC was born. The Home Valuation Code of Conduct, which Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac embraced last year.&lt;/strong&gt; It bans mortgage brokers and loan officers from picking appraisers and basically handed the valuation process to appraisal management companies. The birth wasn&#39;t all that joyous, however. It instantly drew a lot of sharp flak from mortgage brokers, real estate agents, appraisers themselves and the home building industry, undisputed key elements in the real estate realm. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
How is the HVCC doing nowadays?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;MARI, or Mortgage Asset Research Institute, a LexisNexis shop, sheds quite a bit of light on this.&lt;/strong&gt; According to its research - using data gathered from over 600 mortgage wholesalers - the number one fraud generator remains the &lt;a href=&quot;http://activerain.com/blogsview/1629636/mortgage-fraud-on-the-rise-despite-new-hvcc-rules-nevada-way-down-sin-list&quot;&gt;mortgage borrower&lt;/a&gt; who supplies bad data - for instance on income, assets and employment - on the application. This amounts to 59% of all reported mortgage fraud cases in 2009, easily the dominant category.&lt;br /&gt;
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Please click on the above link to access the entire blog.</description><link>http://vegashousing.blogspot.com/2010/05/mortgage-fraud-on-rise-despite-new-hvcc.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Esko)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1WsA2F_HbkB8QxuEWvlzDo26RD47OxGLAhf1ehxN4kmoGpUAs8yGXUwLSWz4dRXFH1zfE1VYfx-J_L-u9bQuEo7oq9_xxSWSzrX8YpHpciJfJvPbhpp43Um4GLO88RKyFn6ueKE9-MupH/s72-c/Lake+Las+Vegas+estate.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>1</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788038502283845513.post-1867882032981345144</guid><pubDate>Thu, 13 May 2010 23:56:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-05-13T16:56:36.259-07:00</atom:updated><title>Strategic mortgage defaults growing - Las Vegas mortgage borrowers tempted</title><description>&lt;strong&gt;Despite sporadic indications that the real estate market is settling down homeowners still feel antsy.&lt;/strong&gt; They are now considering a strategic default - a tactic generally used when the &lt;a href=&quot;http://activerain.com/blogsview/1626853/strategic-mortgage-defaults-heading-up-las-vegas-mortgage-borrowers-tempted&quot;&gt;home loan&lt;/a&gt; balance is higher than the property&#39;s value - more often than before. This is being done even when they can afford the payments.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;strong&gt;University of Chicago&#39;s Booth School of Business and Northwestern University&#39;s Kellogg School of Management conducted a study on strategic mortgage defaults and the numbers they arrived at are harsh.&lt;/strong&gt; In March roughly 31% of foreclosures were labeled strategic, up 9% from March of 2009. So, now about one third of them dominate the foreclosure talk in the banking industry and among policy makers in Washington, a scary trend.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;strong&gt;One major reason to the increase is that mortgage borrowers in general believe lenders wouldn&#39;t track them down for what they are owed.&lt;/strong&gt; Whether they will or will not depends on many variables, among them state laws, their own policies and the spread between outstanding balance and home value. Regardless, 56% of homeowners are betting that it&#39;s safe to do, according to the universities&#39; research.&lt;br /&gt;
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Please click on the link to read the entire blog.</description><link>http://vegashousing.blogspot.com/2010/05/strategic-mortgage-defaults-growing-las.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Esko)</author><thr:total>1</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788038502283845513.post-1247513747289509847</guid><pubDate>Fri, 07 May 2010 20:01:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-05-13T16:51:23.956-07:00</atom:updated><title>Southern Nevada housing may not be as affordable today as it seems</title><description>&lt;strong&gt;The&amp;nbsp;real estate&amp;nbsp;market bust in Las Vegas valley - home to communities like Summerlin, Silverstone Ranch, Henderson, Mountains Edge, North Las Vegas and Rhodes Ranch - has taken down with it homeowners, mortgage lenders, real estate agents and builders, and a host of others closely tied to the industry.&lt;/strong&gt; It has been as brutal a segment collapse as any in history. One of the most plundered victims has been the price. Homes in some of the newer subdivisions have lost as much as 60% of their value in just a few years.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;strong&gt;To scores of once-happy and optimistic homeowners the word underwater has suddenly become a hot topic, as their property value now is much less than the underlying mortgage.&lt;/strong&gt; On the other side of the coin are first-time buyers who are drooling over the current housing affordability in &lt;a href=&quot;http://activerain.com/blogsview/1610187/las-vegas-real-estate-may-not-be-as-affordable-today-as-it-seems&quot;&gt;Las Vegas&lt;/a&gt;, seeing a unique opportunity to grab a home for mere pennies, it seems. A nice home in a solid neighborhood can be purchased for under $150,000, essentially at a price from 10 years and beyond ago.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;strong&gt;NAR, or National Association of Realtors, national affordability index bravely backs the trend and soared to a record territory in 2009, reaching 171.6.&lt;/strong&gt; A household with a median income thus had 171.6% of the income to be approved for a home loan on a median-priced property. This puts it way above what is required. In comparison, the same index stood at 115.4 in 2007, making home buying those days a fair contest.&lt;br /&gt;
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Please click on the above link to read the entire article.</description><link>http://vegashousing.blogspot.com/2010/05/southern-nevada-housing-may-not-be-as.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Esko)</author><thr:total>1</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788038502283845513.post-7900607172476366924</guid><pubDate>Fri, 07 May 2010 19:56:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-05-07T12:57:28.725-07:00</atom:updated><title>White House solicits ideas for mortgage finance reform</title><description>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO6Wt55FLVm9nQtnT-23uXsHOC6X2NT6wAGRRfgHFVE5_xZAo9gDtBb66IPIWLrbMT_6l7VtMMXoRE2X49WGs6NTJ2iaDhmYdGj066ZL4RVL_O30D0b4YtFax0lOOAx0Ah44sJj6ow6IdJ/s1600/Living+room+by+jdiggans.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO6Wt55FLVm9nQtnT-23uXsHOC6X2NT6wAGRRfgHFVE5_xZAo9gDtBb66IPIWLrbMT_6l7VtMMXoRE2X49WGs6NTJ2iaDhmYdGj066ZL4RVL_O30D0b4YtFax0lOOAx0Ah44sJj6ow6IdJ/s320/Living+room+by+jdiggans.jpg&quot; tt=&quot;true&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The home loan market has evolved over the decades into a colossal and thoroughly complicated system that is so hard to get one&#39;s arms around with any authority.&lt;/strong&gt; One of the latest additions to it were the otherworldly subprime mortgages and their subsequent securitization that eventually grew so tricky that few, if anyone for that matter, can today decipher what they actually look like. A fair part of the blame for the current real estate collapse can be squarely allocated to this out-of-control creativity.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;The White House put forth seven questions for public comment in its quest to overhaul the &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://activerain.com/blogsview/1603172/white-house-solicits-ideas-for-mortgage-finance-reform-let-s-give-them-some&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;mortgage finance&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; system and it has to be commended for seeking ideas from the trenches.&lt;/strong&gt; A bunch of sharp minds earn their living in there and can truly bring valuable mortgage input to the table. How much do their opinions matter at the end of the day is a different argument. Anyhow, these questions are rather academic-sounding - perhaps shaped by some Harvard PhDs on a mission - and cover a wide range of territory, essentially the whole industry, it seems. Does the entire system need to be overhauled? Not really. Many sectors in it work rather well, maybe needing just some updating to meet today&#39;s rapidly-shifting mortgage landscape.&lt;br /&gt;
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Let&#39;s give it a go then.&lt;br /&gt;
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Please click on the link above to read the entire article.&lt;br /&gt;
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Photo by jdiggans.</description><link>http://vegashousing.blogspot.com/2010/05/white-house-solicits-ideas-for-mortgage.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Esko)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO6Wt55FLVm9nQtnT-23uXsHOC6X2NT6wAGRRfgHFVE5_xZAo9gDtBb66IPIWLrbMT_6l7VtMMXoRE2X49WGs6NTJ2iaDhmYdGj066ZL4RVL_O30D0b4YtFax0lOOAx0Ah44sJj6ow6IdJ/s72-c/Living+room+by+jdiggans.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>1</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788038502283845513.post-7172223000849308942</guid><pubDate>Thu, 29 Apr 2010 02:51:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-04-28T19:51:03.993-07:00</atom:updated><title>Private mortgage insurers return to market - latimes.com</title><description>&lt;a href=http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-0425-lew-20100425,0,7739757.story?page=1&gt;Private mortgage insurers return to market - latimes.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Posted using &lt;a href=&quot;http://sharethis.com&quot;&gt;ShareThis&lt;/a&gt;</description><link>http://vegashousing.blogspot.com/2010/04/private-mortgage-insurers-return-to.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Esko)</author><thr:total>4</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788038502283845513.post-7143360750217629113</guid><pubDate>Mon, 26 Apr 2010 02:30:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-04-25T19:30:04.626-07:00</atom:updated><title>Las Vegas real estate prices considered stable by price-rent ratio</title><description>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuci0d8_QxZdtkUa27v0bzjRMhn5bGqCf-Z_b_0jTXn5FatooxBmU5Fc-RNp-V0gps4iy8ga-xuKsRgCE6C5sZk3AvL-JjkFOkTjKbuhNoF-91YXcB_M2d8CNAUFkiiVFjWvbs3VrClkgF/s1600/Caesars+Palace1,+Las++Vegas+NV.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuci0d8_QxZdtkUa27v0bzjRMhn5bGqCf-Z_b_0jTXn5FatooxBmU5Fc-RNp-V0gps4iy8ga-xuKsRgCE6C5sZk3AvL-JjkFOkTjKbuhNoF-91YXcB_M2d8CNAUFkiiVFjWvbs3VrClkgF/s320/Caesars+Palace1,+Las++Vegas+NV.jpg&quot; tt=&quot;true&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Price-rent ratio is one good way to gauge whether a particular housing market&#39;s values are stable or not.&lt;/strong&gt; The popular ratio is figured by dividing a city&#39;s median home price by its median annual rent. A pretty basic calculation that will actually say a lot. The national historical average has been 15, according to Marcus &amp;amp; Millichap, a California commercial real estate brokerage. That&#39;s where it again stood at the end of the third quarter of 2009, having retreated there from almost 21 where it had soared to during the housing bubble&#39;s climax in 2005.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;strong&gt;By many &lt;a href=&quot;http://activerain.com/blogsview/1582619/las-vegas-real-estate-prices-deemed-stable-by-price-rent-ratio&quot;&gt;real estate&lt;/a&gt; yardsticks, a price-rent ratio under 15 translates into a market where home values are considered quite stable.&lt;/strong&gt; On the other hand, anything over it, and especially higher than 18, signals that prices remain soft and are likely to erode further. Unless a large down payment is used, going underwater - mortgage balance is higher than property value - in the coming months becomes a real danger.&lt;br /&gt;
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Please click on the above&amp;nbsp;link to read the entire blog.</description><link>http://vegashousing.blogspot.com/2010/04/las-vegas-real-estate-prices-considered.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Esko)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuci0d8_QxZdtkUa27v0bzjRMhn5bGqCf-Z_b_0jTXn5FatooxBmU5Fc-RNp-V0gps4iy8ga-xuKsRgCE6C5sZk3AvL-JjkFOkTjKbuhNoF-91YXcB_M2d8CNAUFkiiVFjWvbs3VrClkgF/s72-c/Caesars+Palace1,+Las++Vegas+NV.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>3</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788038502283845513.post-1486609610852566596</guid><pubDate>Wed, 14 Apr 2010 19:11:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-04-14T12:11:44.073-07:00</atom:updated><title>Washington Mutual created &amp;#39;mortgage time bomb,&amp;#39; Senate panel says - latimes.com</title><description>&lt;a href=http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-wamu-inquiry13-2010apr13,0,324316.story&gt;Washington Mutual created &#39;mortgage time bomb,&#39; Senate panel says - latimes.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Posted using &lt;a href=&quot;http://sharethis.com&quot;&gt;ShareThis&lt;/a&gt;</description><link>http://vegashousing.blogspot.com/2010/04/washington-mutual-created-time-bomb.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Esko)</author><thr:total>2</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788038502283845513.post-6322820112627362431</guid><pubDate>Mon, 12 Apr 2010 00:42:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-04-11T17:42:51.883-07:00</atom:updated><title>Las Vegas upside down homeowners to recover by 2020? It&#39;s plausible</title><description>&lt;strong&gt;Many Southern Nevada - including Mountains Edge, Summerlin, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Canyon Gate and Spanish Trail - mortgage borrowers are still dealing with the effects of the great real estate meltdown.&lt;/strong&gt; Short sale has recently become a more acceptable avenue for home loan banks to address the lingering issue of delinquency, giving people a somewhat more palatable way out of a tight spot. Despite that, high &lt;a href=&quot;http://activerain.com/blogsview/1567564/las-vegas-underwater-homeowners-to-float-by-2020-it-s-possible&quot;&gt;mortgage foreclosure&lt;/a&gt; filings continue clouding the sandy landscape of Las Vegas valley. The once in a lifetime housing upheaval is by no means over and done with yet.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;strong&gt;Sin City&#39;s homeowners have watched in horror as property values have taken a perilous plunge over the cliff, slamming them so low that scores are now in negative equity.&lt;/strong&gt; An altogether regrettable situation. They are now spending quality time wondering about the future of housing here. More specifically, when the underwater label would be ceremoniously blacked out from the local real estate vocabulary.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;strong&gt;First American CoreLogic, a real estate research boutique, has taken the brave step of trying to answer that tricky question.&lt;/strong&gt; It took a close look at ten markets, one of which was Las Vegas, in order to arrive at a time frame when the average mortgage recipient would break surface and again breathe fresh air. It used unpaid principal balances, short-term housing forecasts, a standard measure of long-term value trends, amortization and predictably some other exotic proprietary data to make it happen.&lt;br /&gt;
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To read the entire blog please click on the above link.</description><link>http://vegashousing.blogspot.com/2010/04/las-vegas-upside-down-homeowners-to.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Esko)</author><thr:total>5</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788038502283845513.post-3320120120126051905</guid><pubDate>Mon, 12 Apr 2010 00:37:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-04-11T17:37:54.030-07:00</atom:updated><title>Mortgage fraud on decline thanks to tougher underwriting criteria</title><description>When the notorious housing bubble was forming some years ago a lot of factors were aiding and abetting its run to those dizzying, unsustainable heights. One of them was mortgage fraud. Banks were so busy crafting new and glitzy home loan products and making money hand over fist with them that often they overlooked questionable mortgage loan applications. When opportunity knocks, it has to be taken full advantage of, seems to have been the going motto then.&lt;br /&gt;
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But things have changed drastically in the mortgage world since the air rapidly hissed out of the bubble. Investors, who bought mortgage-backed securities, or MBS, have increasingly requested lenders take back fraudulent loans. That has prompted them to tighten their mortgage guidelines, as it really hurts their bottom line to buy back all sorts of wayward paper. Besides tougher guidelines, application information is also more carefully verified for a change.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6SYsqX1-SlkIkPzWdezKplVx9CUIlzMQ13l4JOltM_nzr00hoZU9I2F911KrNGugNC6Ybg7Q7lvxg7oFKGVpP2Cbt5YjichclZdwj5bvPg_Mbtn1RaVTqIHGtqX1DuC1uZsZKKpHXe3bS/s1600/NW+house16.+Las+Vegas+NV.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; src=&quot;https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6SYsqX1-SlkIkPzWdezKplVx9CUIlzMQ13l4JOltM_nzr00hoZU9I2F911KrNGugNC6Ybg7Q7lvxg7oFKGVpP2Cbt5YjichclZdwj5bvPg_Mbtn1RaVTqIHGtqX1DuC1uZsZKKpHXe3bS/s320/NW+house16.+Las+Vegas+NV.jpg&quot; wt=&quot;true&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;First American CoreLogic recently released a study stating that one in 200 mortgages closed in 2009 was fraudulent. In money terms it added up to $14 billion. It sounds like a lot, but it is actually down roughly 25% from a historical high in 2007, now progressing steadily south. It&#39;s also predictable that this trend will continue in the coming years, at least as long as &lt;a href=&quot;http://activerain.com/blogsview/1559939/mortgage-fraud-declining-amid-tightening-underwriting-criteria&quot;&gt;mortgage lenders&lt;/a&gt; keep hurting the way they do today.&lt;br /&gt;
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Please click on the link to read the entire blog.</description><link>http://vegashousing.blogspot.com/2010/04/mortgage-fraud-on-decline-thanks-to.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Esko)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6SYsqX1-SlkIkPzWdezKplVx9CUIlzMQ13l4JOltM_nzr00hoZU9I2F911KrNGugNC6Ybg7Q7lvxg7oFKGVpP2Cbt5YjichclZdwj5bvPg_Mbtn1RaVTqIHGtqX1DuC1uZsZKKpHXe3bS/s72-c/NW+house16.+Las+Vegas+NV.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>4</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788038502283845513.post-4656037548282957296</guid><pubDate>Sun, 11 Apr 2010 17:07:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-04-11T10:07:51.505-07:00</atom:updated><title>Test your knowledge of credit scores - latimes.com</title><description>&lt;a href=http://www.latimes.com/classified/realestate/news/la-fi-lew11-2010apr11,0,3995499.story&gt;Test your knowledge of credit scores - latimes.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Posted using &lt;a href=&quot;http://sharethis.com&quot;&gt;ShareThis&lt;/a&gt;</description><link>http://vegashousing.blogspot.com/2010/04/test-your-knowledge-of-credit-scores.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Esko)</author><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788038502283845513.post-1200833752277114421</guid><pubDate>Fri, 09 Apr 2010 19:10:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-04-09T12:10:32.410-07:00</atom:updated><title>Foreclosed? Here comes the tax man</title><description>&lt;a href=http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/08/pf/taxes/taxes_mortgage_debt/index.htm&gt;Foreclosed? Here comes the tax man&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Posted using &lt;a href=&quot;http://sharethis.com&quot;&gt;ShareThis&lt;/a&gt;</description><link>http://vegashousing.blogspot.com/2010/04/foreclosed-here-comes-tax-man.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Esko)</author><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788038502283845513.post-6608717824385598356</guid><pubDate>Fri, 09 Apr 2010 01:25:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-04-08T18:25:13.338-07:00</atom:updated><title>Freddie Mac reports rise in mortgage rates</title><description>&lt;a href=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2010/04/freddie-mac-says-mortgage-rates-higher.html&gt;Freddie Mac reports rise in mortgage rates &lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Posted using &lt;a href=&quot;http://sharethis.com&quot;&gt;ShareThis&lt;/a&gt;</description><link>http://vegashousing.blogspot.com/2010/04/freddie-mac-reports-rise-in-mortgage.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Esko)</author><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink="false">tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788038502283845513.post-542332967149176473</guid><pubDate>Sun, 04 Apr 2010 22:07:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2010-04-04T15:07:56.204-07:00</atom:updated><title>Should You Buy or Rent? - Kiplinger</title><description>&lt;a href=http://www.kiplinger.com/magazine/archives/should-you-buy-or-rent.html&gt;Should You Buy or Rent? - Kiplinger&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Posted using &lt;a href=&quot;http://sharethis.com&quot;&gt;ShareThis&lt;/a&gt;</description><link>http://vegashousing.blogspot.com/2010/04/should-you-buy-or-rent-kiplinger.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Esko)</author><thr:total>0</thr:total></item></channel></rss>